tidecat

If she was actually planning legal action, an attorney would be telling her not to discuss this on social media.

If they are going to to the trouble of applying for a passport, get both the book and the card. The cost difference is minimal. They are good for ten years. The card is fine for travel by ship, however it is not permissible for international flights in or out of the US. This could be an issue if there was some disruption to the cruise.

Pacific Adventure has had to cancel some calls to New Zealand due to the country's strict antifouling requirements: https://www.cruisehive.com/cruise-ship-denied-entry-to-new-zealand-passengers-face-itinerary-change/116551

It was actually Carnival Panorama that was supposed to be for P&O Australia. Carnival Splendor was originally ordered as a sister to Costa Concordia.

So why didn't Carnival do this during the shutdown? It would have been seen as perfectly justifiable to consolidate brands as a cost savings measure. Both Adventure and Encounter had renovations as part of their conversion from Princess. Pacific Explorer probably sticks around longer had she become Carnival Explorer.

I know it's been a while, but the entire FunShip 2.0 program was designed to be completed during a two week drydock. If any changes are going happen to staterooms, there may be some rooms that are taken out of service while the ship is still sailing. Carnival did this with the Triumph and Victory before they became Sunrise and Radiance.

Industry wide, demand for cruises is higher than it has ever been, even in spite of all of the new capacity that has been added since cruises resumed. You might be able to get some last minute deals out of Florida, as ports in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic historically have tended to command higher prices. People are willing to pay more for the convenience of not flying.

At this far out there may not be a buyer, not even a scrapyard. There is still lots of time to execute the sale. I would not be surprised if Ambassador winds up with Explorer, given they have the former Pacific Dawn (Ambience) and Costa neoRiviera (Ambition). I'd also keep an eye on Margaritaville at Sea, who is probably itching to get rid of Paradise (formerly Costa neoClassica). Fred. Olsen could be in play as well if they are looking either to expand or to replace the 1988-built Balmoral (former Crown Odyssey/Norwegian Crown).

The removal of Pacific Explorer will affect a number of homeports: Auckland, Adelaide, Fremantle, and Melbourne. It will be interesting to see if Carnival uses Adventure or Encounter to serve any of those homeports. Luminosa could also be on the move since Encounter sails for Brisbane year-round.

It would be easier to do this with P&O UK as it serves an English-speaking market. It also would keep them from being confused with P&O Ferries (which was a source of some irritation when Ferries ran afoul of British labor laws). Doing this with AIDA and Costa may be more cumbersome because of the language and cultural differences.

Since Carnival is getting Pacific Adventure and Pacific Encounter in 2025, what do you think the ships be named? The path of least resistance would be simply to rename them to Carnival Adventure and Carnival Encounter, but having the shore excursions branded as "Carnival Adventures" is highly problematic. Reusing old ship names may not work here either given that the two Excel class ships scheduled for 2027-2028 will likely pull form the remaining of Carnival's original seven ships (Carnivale, Festivale, Tropicale, Holiday). The Fantasy class will also presumably still exist, but could some of Elation's and Paradise's late sisters be fair game? Ecstasy would probably be out as she briefly returned to service post-shutdown. Fantasy would be out because the class is still in use. Fascination, Sensation, Imagination, and Inspiration might work here. I don't think Destiny, Triumph, or Victory would work here for varying reasons. I also think that Carnival could add a third Fun Italian style ship by renaming Pacific Adventure to Carnival Grandiosa and theming it to Rome. This also serves as a nod to the ship having been built as part of the Grand class. If Grandiosa is problematic from a marketing standpoint, Carnival Vicenza could work here as a nod to the ship having been the Golden Princess, and any theming could be to the Vicenza region. Luminosa could also join the Italian-style fun by being themed to Ostuni, the less famous "City of Light" in Italy, since Venice is already spoken for in the fleet - or you could just copy the Venetian theming on Venezia since few will be likely to sail both Venezia and Luminosa. For Pacific Explorer I'd be more inclined to roll with Carnival Explorer. The Star name will be getting quite the workout in 2025 with both Star Princess and Star of the Seas so Carnival Star likely isn't an option. If you want an outright new name, maybe something like Carnival Solaris? This might also be time to use Carnival Brilliance, which presumably would have been the new name for Costa Magica had she joined the Carnival fleet.

I question whether there's much more left on the table in the US market given that operators are offering discounts this summer given the ongoing issues in the Red Sea: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cruise-operators-offer-summer-discounts-051026361.html I think this move may be more about cost savings, especially since most of the cruising public in AU/NZ will be aware of the Carnival/P&O relationship. Now Carnival only has to run one advertising campaign in the market, consolidate customer service departments, etc. Both Carnival and Royal Caribbean should be at 31 ships by 2028. Carnival might actually be the largest cruise line in the world again, at least intermittently over the next 4.5 years.

PINs can be compromised too as people tend to use things like birthdates. Requiring two-factor authentication would also be a huge deterrent to something like this happening.

I understand the fee based on the size of the ship fee being divvied up based on an estimated number of passengers, but that doesn't explain the comment from @BlerkOne about port taxes increasing when a fare is being repriced ahead of the actual sailing date.

Why would the port taxes change? As long as you are not changing ships or changing the size of your party, the taxes based on the size of the ship and taxes based on number of passengers do not change.